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The US and its would-be allies lack a coherent, joined-up plan to counter Beijing’s growing swayThe unusually rumbustious Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit that shuddered to an ill-tempered halt at the weekend proved one thing beyond any doubt: the US and China are intent on doing to the Indo-Pacific region in the 21st century what the US and the Soviet Union did to Europe in the last.

Ann Scott Tyson found reporting especially challenging in the western region of Xinjiang, where she went to witness the impact of China’s forced ‘reeducation’ of its Uyghur minority. But that work produced a rare and nuanced look at the project’s effect.

Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, sustained some of the worst losses, and fears over an escalating trade war with China rattled investorsUS stock markets dropped sharply on Monday as big technology companies led losses, and fears over an escalating trade war with China rattled investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly fell 500 points, ending the day down 384 points (1.5%).Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, the most valuable companies on the market, sustained some of the worst losses. Apple dropped close to 4% on...

Conservationists have released footage and photographs of the world’s rarest rhino, which counts fewer than 70 members among its population and is confined to a single national park in Indonesia.
While camera-trap images of the Javan rhino have occasionally surfaced, a WWF spokesperson says the photographs released Monday are only the third manually captured set ever published. They offer a rare glimpse of the critically endangered mammal wallowing in near-dusk light.
“Very few people have seen a Javan rhino in the wild,” says photographer Robin Moore, who snapped the images...

Three of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists and six others went on trial Monday for spearheading the tumultuous “Occupy Central” demonstrations in 2014. The case is the most concerted effort yet to punish the leaders of mass protests that immobilized the city’s financial district for nearly three months and drew global attention to China’s stifling of democratic norms and political rights in the semi-autonomous territory.

Professors Chan Kin-man and Benny Tai and baptist minister Chu Yiu-ming among nine tried over 2014 protestsThree of Hong Kong’s most high-profile democracy activists have pleaded not guilty to charges of public nuisance for their involvement in nearly three months of street protests in 2014 that brought parts of the city to a standstill.The three men face up to seven years in prison if convicted under a colonial-era law for encouraging mass protests that became known as the Umbrella movement and called for direct elections for Hong Kong’s leader, a position that is in effect appointed by...

Sharp divisions emerge at Port Moresby summit as Japan and US push back against China’s growing influence in the PacificThe Apec summit has been unable to produce a joint communique because of tensions between the US and China over trade and security issues which flared throughout the gathering of regional leaders.While Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, had struck an upbeat note as Apec drew to a close, declaring that Washington and Beijing were getting...

Case highlights failure to honour promise of free elections, say campaigners Nine leaders of Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement go on trial on Monday on various charges that each carry a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.The justice department has prosecuted leading activists from the 2014 protests, in which huge crowds turned out to call for political reform, with some barred from standing for office and others removed from the legislature. Related:...

(PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea) — An acrimonious meeting of world leaders in Papua New Guinea failed to agree Sunday on a final communique, highlighting widening divisions between global powers China and the U.S.
The 21 nations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Port Moresby struggled to bridge differences on the role of the World Trade Organization, which governs international trade, officials said. A statement was to be issued instead by the meeting’s chair, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.
“The entire world is worried” about tensions between...

Australian PM downplays Beijing’s Pacific expansionist ambitions as Chinese officials reportedly try to force way into PNG minister’s officeScott Morrison says the United States and China are getting closer to resolving a trade war that threatens economic growth in the region, downplaying tensions on display during the Apec summit about Beijing’s expansionist ambitions in the Pacific, and the impact of globalisation.The Australian prime minister said on Sunday the US and China were aware that other Apec countries wanted to see an end to the tit-for-tat trade spat that has played out since...